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Hanashima, the Isle of Flowers
The island nation of Hanashima is the home of the mythical Kitsune and their unknowing human servants. The nation has existed in it's present form since the beginning of the Thaw, but has existed in other forms since time immemorial. Always it has been governed by an Emperor while his human and Kitsune subjects farm the land and war with each other. Numerous small islands make up a large part of the nation while the main island is a vast, swelling, crescent of land. Hanashima is located across the sea south of the ruins of the Olympians. Covered with mountains and hills, there are numerous caves and caverns and a copious amount of hot springs fueled by the volcanoes beneath the ground. Many of the communities of the islands are isloated from one another, often their only contact with the outside being the magistrates of the emperor, collecting taxes and pronouncing decrees. While only a pale shadow of it's former glory, the islands are home to a vast variety of flowers and trees from which it gets its name. These have been cultivated for centuries by the people to show favor to the Emperor who have all loved them. Since the Thaw, a multitude of valleys have become flooded to the point of nearly being called inland seas, destroying many villages in the process. Other areas have seen extensive and tiresome labors put forth towards land reclaimation in order to return the islands to their state before Ragnarok, but it may be centuries before these plans are seen through fully The people of Hanshima are a simple folk, primarily living in secluded villages dotting most of the landscape, but there are several cities serving as the home of different provincial lords. The Human dewellers of the island believe that the Kitsune are strange creatures that often take the shape of others to trick humans, while the Kitsune themselves hide among them and secretly rule. The farm workers and simple laborers of Hanashima are almost exclusively Human, but nearly all of the emporer's servants, the scholars, the clergy, and most of the provincal lords are Kitsune. While the serfs may be superstitious and simple folks content to tend their farms and brew their rice wine, the lords that rule each of Hanashima's 27 provinces are all ambituous and prickly, oftentimes waging wars with the others over insults to one another. All are unswervingly loyal to the Emperor be it out of tradition, or they truly know how powerful he is. Posing as humans, it has taken many millennia to allow these woodland creatures to take over. It began simply with the Kitsune known as Kikka, posing as a village elder tricking the rest of the village to band together and begin unifying the other villages. The landscape was home to many creatures, and at first Kikka sought to use the humans as a shield against them. Many other Kitsune joined in this idea, posing as other village heads to speed along the process, but, of course many other villages were unified by the sword resulting in Kikka being crowned the first Emperor. At present, the people of Hanshima know their ruler as the "Blessed Emperor" who has ruled the nation for the last 46 years, as always under his family's sigil of a chrysanthemum. Now, instead of using the humans for his own defense, the Emperor simply imposes order over his subjects. At times he will intercede on behalf of one lord or another, but prefers to allow the regional lords to govern their own lands. He spends much of his time in the palace gardens holding court there, a massive, multi-tiered collection of flowers and trees from across the island and even some species from the mainlands. It has been an arduous task performed by a great many gardeners and druids of the clergy to build and maintain this terrace. Of the 27 provincial lords, most are other Kitsune, with the remaining twelve as humans. These human lords are resented, partly because of the way their families came into power by murdering the previous Kitsune ruler. Many times over in the country's history have these families come into conflict appearing only to be started over a simple slight, but often have been attempts from one of the Kitsune lords to oust the upstart humans. Sometimes they are successful, but it's a matter of time until the lord is discovered to be a fox and some hero will "save his region before the fox can take control." These lords are typically seen as careless, and can not expect help from the other Kitsune who will simply not risk themselves and of course the Emperor to aid them. Many of the provinces have switched between Kitsune and Human rulers time and time again. Not all of the Kitsune lords begrudge their Human counterparts, either leaving them alone to govern their own provinces or even trying to befriend them. Due to the repeated conflicts, several of the nations ruled by Human lords have seen a great many battles fought there and have built substaintial military power in order to survive. In a way, the Kitsune fighting against them have actually helped to solidifiy their power. The nation's strongest warriors regularly hail from theese regions oftimes being recruited into the Emperor's personal Celestial Guard. Following Ragnarok, the once lush and colorful landscape gave way to dull, grey, rocky earth covered in snow. Starvation and disease were commonplace among the isolated villages, with a large number of them being wiped from the map. Many of the lords quickly moved what they could to the imperial city, but some others were able to eek out a living among the snowy hills, hunting what game they could and harvesting roots planted in the warm caves. The imperial city, though, was miraculously untouched. Commoners would attribute this to their divine protection from their gods, and in a way, they are correct. In fact, it was the powerful and ancient druids of the clergy and the Emperor himself using their power to protect the city and its inhabitants. For those lucky enough to spend the Ice Age in the city, life was similar to a permanent more commonplace winter. For the druids, however, only the most powerful among them survived. Those who were younger gave their lives to help preserve the others, their power being painfully wrenched from them over their lives. Indeed, were it not for the Emperor himself, it is unlikely the city would have even survived. While the ruling lords have since moved from the city and either reclaimed their homelands or actively work to, the clergy now seeks to rebuild, slowly recooperating their numbers as well as slowly reclaiming the temples and shrines that were lost to the floods after the Thaw. Life among the islands is predominantly the same as before the Ice Age, but that came at the price of devastation to the druidic monks. Many shrines yet lay hidden beneath dead trees, and temples lay buried under lakes. Even in its weakened state, the druids of the clergy take great efforts to find and restore these places, and many expeditions are organized to retrieve artifacts lost to the waters. The clergy are the keepers of the temples and shrines dedicated to the many gods of the islands. Chief among them is the sun goddess Amaterasu, whom the Emperor claims lineage from. The god Inari is held in very high regard as the god of rice allowing the people to survive and the Kitsune believe he was responsible for the creation of their race. Then, the twins Fujin and Raijin are the next most worshipped. Fujin as the god of wind, and Raijin as the god of lighting together make the storms which allow the people's rice and beloved flowers to grow. The other gods are still venerated, but these 4 are the most widely celebrated, with either a shrine or temple to them in every village.